Burkesland was originally discovered during the first expeditions to Sirius in the 2150s. Captain Nathanial Burke was the leader of Earth's Hermes Mission, and being the first man to step foot on what was then a dusty, Mars-like planet he became an international hero. A vote by committee named the planet after him, and urged on by Burke himself colonists flocked to the planet to live in domes and begin one of the very first terraforming projects in human history. Within 150 years, a carbon dioxide atmosphere had been generated and converted to oxygen and nitrogen by plants. Burkesland became one of the only major non-industrial population centers of the Main Belt, thanks in more than small part to the Fleet base stationed on the planet, a fair distance from Earth in case of trouble. During